DOGE Tightens Its Grip at the Interior Department

Tyler Hassen, a DOGE operative, was delegated the authority of an Assistant Secretary position at the agency.

A young biologist with the Fish and Wildlife Service who was fired not long after he and his pregnant wife moved halfway across the country to work for the agency. A Navy veteran who landed her dream job as a park ranger, only to have the offer rescinded days before she was scheduled to start in the role. Probationary employees across the Interior Department eliminated on the false pretext that they were poor performers, no matter how glowing their achievements or important their jobs.

These are just a tiny sample of the stories emerging from DOGE’s purge at the Interior Department. To Elon Musk and his team, the civil servants at our country’s environmental agencies seem to be little more than disposable parts in a SpaceX factory. But even as DOGE decimates the operational capacity of key DOI bureaus, its own operatives are landing plum positions, further tightening DOGE’s grip on personnel and budgetary policy at the department.

Public Domain first reported late last month that Tyler Hassen, an Ivy League graduate and oil industry insider, was working as a key DOGE operative at the Interior Department. Now, Hassen has received a promotion.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum issued a secretarial order late Friday announcing that Hassen has been delegated the authority associated with the Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management and Budget (PMB) position at the Interior Department. It is a significant role that puts the Department’s personnel and purse strings under his purview, at least for now. As the Interior Department’s website explains, the Assistant Secretary-PMB is the DOI’s Chief Financial Officer, Chief Acquisitions Officer and Chief Performance Officer. It’s a big job. Hassen replaces Charlie Dankert, a long-time Trump loyalist, in the position.

Tyler Hassen (right), who has been working as a DOGE operative at the Interior Department, was delegated the authority of an assistant secretary. Photo credit: Department of Government Efficiency’s X account.

Hassen is not the only DOGE operative that has burrowed into an official position at DOI.

Stephanie Holmes is a human resources professional who, among other jobs, worked for Oklo, a nuclear energy startup where Energy Secretary Chris Wright once served on the board of directors. Her role as a DOGE operative has been widely reported in the press. Now, Holmes is “exercising the delegated authority” of the Chief Human Capital Officer, or CHCO, at the Interior Department, a role that empowers her to oversee human resources policy and operations. CHCO positions are usually filled by career civil servants, but a March 6 memo from the Office of Personnel Management officially opened these roles to political appointees like Holmes.

The Interior Department declined to comment on these personnel moves. Suffice to say, DOGE is now well established at the Department of the Interior. Public Domain will continue to report aggressively on Hassen, Holmes and the other DOGE operatives at DOI. We have filed records requests for their calendars, their financial disclosure forms, and their emails, and will bring those documents to our readers as soon as we receive them.